Overview
MassDOT understands that municipalities have different needs and abilities when it comes to developing a plan for Chapter 90 spending. In an effort to support local planning efforts, MassDOT created a Chapter 90 Planning Toolkit to provide municipalities with basic resources to program their Chapter 90 funds. Download the Planning Toolkit below. The Planning Toolkit is an Excel document that provides a template of the following:
- Annual Chapter 90 Checklist
- Asset Condition List
- Bridge Inventory List
- Infrastructure Budget
- Project Planning
- Project Prioritization Matrix (unweighted and weighted)
Instructions for each template are included within the Excel document and are detailed here.
Annual Chapter 90 Checklist
The Annual Chapter 90 Checklist provides a list of steps that a municipality may take on an annual basis to prepare for funding decisions related to Chapter 90. These include meetings with municipal staff and the public, updating inventory logs, and checking planning documents for potential projects. Items on the checklist can be added, edited, and deleted as desired.
Asset Condition List and Bridge Inventory List
The Asset Condition List and Bridge Inventory List can be used to comprehensively track the condition of transportation assets, as well as their potential for repair needs. The Asset Condition list can be used for a wide range of assets, spanning from signage to pavement to drainage. The template includes information on how old the asset is, when it was last inspected, its recent condition, and its monetary value. This information may help a municipality prioritize repair work. The Bridge Inventory List functions similarly but provides additional fields to summarize key data from Bridge Inspection Reports. For both templates, fields can be added or deleted to suit a municipality’s specific needs.
Infrastructure Budget and Project Planning
The Infrastructure Budget and Project Planning Table can be used independently or in partnership with existing budgeting tools that a municipality may already have. The budget template can be used at the beginning of each fiscal year to compile anticipated revenue from various funding sources, as well as anticipated uses of funds. Municipalities may need to add rows for additional funding sources or expenditures depending on their individual needs. The Project Planning tab is meant as a more long-term planning tool and allows municipalities to list all potential projects and assign them anticipated construction years, thereby projecting how Chapter 90 funds will be carried over and utilized to meet future needs.
Project Prioritization Matrices
The Project Prioritization Matrices (weighted and unweighted) are project prioritization templates that allow municipalities to rank projects against each other. Both templates prompt the municipality to add projects and set criteria by which the projects will be prioritized. The Unweighted Matrix will rank the projects based on all set criteria evenly, while the Weighted Matrix allow the user to input percent-weights to each category and then rank accordingly. Both the Weighted and Unweighted Matrix templates’ cells are prepopulated with the necessary mathematic formulas to conduct the specified ranking; municipalities only need to fill in the blanks and add/hide rows or columns as desired.
Download
The intent of the Chapter 90 Planning Toolkit is to provide municipalities with a basic resource for planning. The Planning Toolkit may be used as a guide for planning as deemed appropriate by the municipality. It should be noted that altering the Excel document from its template form may undermine any preset formulas and conditions of the cells, thereby potentially resulting in mathematical errors. Municipalities should verify that all work is accurate. The Planning Toolkit does not replace any required local, state, or federal planning methods or approvals.
Download the Chapter 90 Planning Toolkit, or the completed sample version, below.